Financial Regulation: A Transatlantic Perspective

The 2007 to 2009 financial crisis resulted in the re-emergence of the debate on financial regulation and its relationships with other macroeconomic policies, particularly monetary policy. In Europe, the financial crisis was followed by the sovereign debt crisis, as the bail-out of the financial sector put strains on public finances in several countries. The sequence of events called for a strengthening of the union, ranging from a common framework for supervisory policy that could minimize the risk of unforeseen bank or country defaults to a common resolution mechanism that could set equal rules across countries and reduce ex-ante mis-incentives to risk-taking and moral hazard. This analysis of the state of and prospects for financial regulation examines the lending and saving behavior of banks and households as well as their borrowing activities in order to understand the conflicting priorities and complicated decisions involved in the development and implementation of financial legislation.

Ester Faia holds the Chair in Monetary and Fiscal Policy at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and is Program Director of the macro-finance area at the Research Center SAFE.

Andreas Hackethal is Professor of Finance at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, where he is also Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.

Michael Haliassos holds the Chair of Macroeconomics and Finance at Goethe University Frankfurt, and is Director of the Center for Financial Studies and of the CEPR Network on Household Finance.

Katja Langenbucher is Professor for Private Law, Corporate and Financial Law at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and an affiliated professor of the Institut d'Etudes Politiques (SciencesPo), Paris.